United Kingdom: gross domestic product

After six consecutive quarters of negative growth, the UK emerged from recession in the final quarter of 2009, but it has since endured its slowest recovery since the end of the First World War. More than three years after the crisis struck, output remains 4 per cent below peak and more than 10 per cent below pre-crisis trend. A growth rate of 1.3 per cent in 2010 placed the UK 164th in the global league table, behind Italy, France, the United States, Canada, Germany and Japan.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that growth for 2012 will be 0.7 per cent, rising to 2.1 per cent in 2013 and then 2.7 per cent in 2014, 3 per cent in 2015 and 3 per cent again in 2016.